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two wheels 2 March 2009 at 02:44 PM EST by Charles

Last night I came home from a trip to visit my wife's family. They live in Niles, Michigan, a city a little over an hour from where we live.

While there, we discovered some older bicycles in the garage, and on the return trip home, we packed them in my trunk. Currently, they're sitting in my foyer mostly reasssembled.

The only reason I know anything about working on bicycles is from everything I learned about working on mopeds in the Moped Army, a nationwide organization of moped riders. I bought a moped years ago from a shop run by a member of the local gang, The Decepticons. After repeated replacement of nearly everything on that bike—consenders, points, flywheels, an engine head, rear shock hardware, several headlight bulbs, more spark plug wires and caps than I can count, a rear wheel, the pulley and belt, the chain (a couple of times, I think), and other bits I surely can't remember—I'm pretty confident mucking around on unknown mechanical devices.

Mopeds and these old Schwinn bicycles I brought back are surprisingly a bittersweet combination for me. For years, when I was little, I used to pass by Milwood Schwinn, the bike shop just down the street from my house, and where my dad would usually take me when we needed bike parts. It was shuttered a few years back. And Kalamazoo used to have the headquarters of 1977 mopeds, arguably one of the bigger moped shops. It too has closed, a victim of the current poor economy. If they could have afforded to keep the doors open on the Kalamazoo location (now with their main location having moved to San Francisco, Calif.), I was told they wouldn't have had funds to keep it stocked with goods come spring.

Most news reports looking at the current economy seem to focus on the failure of large industry stalwarts—the banks, investment companies, car manufacturers and others who are all failing. To me, I'm more disturbed by the loss of my local moped shop. Even in this awful economy, I'm sure I could find funds to buy the overwhelmingly cheap parts available for my moped. It just seems that I'll have no where to go and buy them at.

In sections: business, today
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Sackcloth and ashes 18 February 2009 at 02:53 PM EST by Charles

Ash Wednesday 2009 is upon us again, but each year I find myself more ill-at-ease with the holiday. I'm mean, it's just become so commercial.

I mean, seriously, from Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers, to pączkis at the grocery store — how is a sane person to cope with the thoroughly overwhelming mad dash to the pantry to use up all the remaining butter, lard, and sugar?! The impending holiday is just too profitable, and the marketers know it!

This Ash Wednesday, no ashes for me. I'm just going to not wash my face on Tuesday and maybe I'll appear dirty enough on my own. Let the man, the ash man, the commercial ash-selling businessman know that he can't keep me down.

In sections: today, faith
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